In the four videos below we're going to cover several things that owners, CEO's, entrepreneurs, sales execs, and other digital marketers should know to level up their business.
Most people don't want to take the time to learn online marketing strategies, they leave it for the professionals as it seems too complex and overwhelming; I get it! You don't have to learn that much, only the super important parts.
I give my clients tiny bits of information in small doses about all things in digital marketing that affect their ROI.
Some clients had been completely ripped off month after month before we meet; we've all had those awful experiences.
Quick story: One of my international clients had been working with a large SEO firm and web designer for several years before they hired me.
As I began working with them, I saw areas of concerns both on their website and with their SEO.
I asked to see their keyword files. The first red flag was when the owner asked, what are keywords? This is not the owners' fault or responsibility.
It's the responsibilities of both pros to have gone over the keyword lists within the first few days to clarify the importance and to confirm certain words that would be best used on the website, as well as, all business listings, and all other online platforms.
It took the SEO firm two weeks to email the lists, what should have taken a minutes. When the lists arrived, it was even more alarming!
Most every keyword had zero "monthly search volume" for both, local and global! That means absolutely no one was searching for these terms!
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there; other methods that were being used, Google announced five years prior they were no longer being used.
They were losing their ranking the entire time; no one was searching or finding them, not to mention all the other issues with both their SEO and website.
The owner had no clue this was going on and how could he? He did what seemed the logical thing by hiring two professionals; both had many clients; they knew the lingo, they appeared to be professionals, they seemed confident in their specialty.
In reality, people and businesses like these truly believe they are doing good work. I choose to believe these businesses weren't purposely out to rip off business owners. Although, some do.
I prefer to believe many of them don’t know that they don’t know, or they've gotten complacent in their work and staying up to date on this ever changing digital world.
So basically the owner had been paying for SEO and website development/ maintenance for well over two years with nothing to show for it.
They received monthly reports that no one bothered to read or explain.
I see this sort of thing more often than not in all different types of industries throughout the world.
If someone would have stepped in two and a half years earlier, they could have used the money they lost and tripled their ROI, and that’s being ultra-conservative.
Over the past decade, I’ve seen many crazy yet similar things like this in the digital space. The sad truth is, no one realizes it’s happening! Not the owner, nor the people who are creating the issues! The good news, this can all be fixed.
Although I've won my clients trust by handling their accounts, I will continue to teach them in small bits along the way. I believe every owner should understand all things that greatly affect their business finances. They need to know enough about digital marketing that will empower them to make intelligent decisions.
If anything would happen to me, I want my clients to be fully equipped to know what questions to ask and what to look for so they never encounter a bad financial experience.
In digital marketing, it's not enough to avoid mistakes; if you're not improving ROI - you're losing.
The material here is simple and straightforward. I cut the videos into four sections for those who are short on time to return later. If I remember correctly each video is about three minutes.
Also, if you who prefer reading text, it's included under each video. The rest of us who prefer audio & visual graphics, the videos are all you need (skip the text between the videos).
Choose your favorite method and enjoy!
One last thing, if you run into unfamiliar terminology, please skim over it. Getting the gist is what's important.
Part 1: Digital Marketing Tips For Businesses
We’ll talk about hyper-targeted online billboards for your business and how we use perfect ads to acquire highly qualified clients at the lowest cost possible.
Before we begin, this isn’t for everyone; this is for those serious about growing their business, prepared and ready to take on new clients right away.
Let’s begin?
The topics we'll cover:
- Why SEO should not be your main strategy nor should it necessarily be your 1st!
- How to stop wasting your marketing budget on methods with no or slow ROI.
- Google Ads for most businesses.
- How to generate highly relevant ads while paying less than the market rate.
- While getting the highest quality leads possible.
As a business owner you know each has a major impact on your bottom line.
Once you have the rest of these basic principles, you will be much more prepared for future marketing decisions.
I hope you're excited to hear this! I’m certainly excited to share it! Let’s dive in!
SEO (Search Engine Optimization is how we tweak your website with keywords to help you rank higher on Google.
Not only do we draw humans to your site, but SEO is how we help the Google bots better navigate your site, read it, index it, and rank it.
SEO is how we help you rank organically, which means getting to the top positions on the 1st page of Google for free without running ads.
99% of businesses start with SEO, and because you need a website, it seems like the logical order; you need some SEO to set your business up online.
The reason we don’t believe SEO should be your only strategy nor your first. It takes time to determine which tweaks help or hurt your ranking.
SEO results typically take six months to a year or longer, depending on your industry & competition.
When we start working with new clients that have been paying many, many months for SEO yet still waiting for a return on their investment, that’s not cool!
You may already have experienced this.
You may have been paying a long time for SEO and still no results, or worse, you’re wondering if it will ever work!
To be clear, SEO is very important; we use it on our sites, as well as our clients. We believe in changing up the order a bit so that you may receive and ROI now rather than later.
Most businesses do not have enough room in their budget to do long term SEO, run ads, email campaigns, and other forms of marketing, too. Why pay out for months to years or beyond, without a return on your investment?
Therefore, our strategy is first to get our clients rocking in their businesses with a steady stream of new clients, so they are profitable and comfortable before the longer and more tedious portion of their marketing begins; the rest of their SEO.
On the other hand, if you have room in your budget to do everything at once; that’s outstanding, by all means, go for it!
Let’s switch gears for a minute and talk about something we're all familiar with.Part 2: Ranking In Google For 2020
Billboard ads. Billions of dollars are spent on billboard ads every year! Billboard ads are everywhere, especially on major highways, yet, they are very expensive.
So why do people spend so much money on them?
Because they work! Why are they so expensive? Because of the high volume of traffic. The more populated areas get more eyeballs. The same is true with every form of advertising.
But there is one major problem; billboard ads are not very relevant to most of the people driving by.
The people in all these cars want and need something different. There may be only one person in all the traffic looking for what you offer at your business. This woman is looking for a plumber; this man is looking for a law firm; this woman, a plastic surgeon; whereas, the woman in this car is searching for a company to install solar panels.
So you see, billboard ads are not very relevant to most of these people. Oh, wait! Here is someone looking for what you offer at your business! Uh oh! They didn’t even notice the sign! Oh, but wait, this person happens to be needing what you offer; they saw the sign. So the ad worked after all!
This owner was able to acquire one new client. They spent $12K of the billboard ads and made $13K. So they didn’t lose their ad spend, yet they made very little profit; they would have done much better with a more relevant audience!
Think how great it would be if we were able to put the right billboard in front of the right person every time?
For example, if everyone in this line of traffic was looking for what you offer at your business. Or in this line, a plastic surgeon. And these people are all looking for solar panel installations. And then all these people are looking for a psychiatrist because they all know this is impossible! Or is it?
With the power of the Internet, not only is this possible, but we can reach
All the people who are searching for what you offer within your demographic, more precisely than any other form of advertising!
When Searching Online – If someone were to search for
Stem Cell Therapy, PRP Injections, Stem Cell Regeneration. These terms are too broad and difficult for the searcher to find a business nearby. But by adding the state where they live It narrows the search. Then by adding their city, the search becomes even more relevant. But the real magic begins when we get more specific, the holy grail of search!
When we are super-specific about what we are looking for, such as:
- Stem cell PRP injections, Kansas City MO.
- Stem cell Chicago, rotator cuff tear repair
- Stem cell injections, herniated discs, New York, NY
- Stem Cell Meniscus repair without surgery, Phoenix AZ
- Arthritis pain hand/wrist, Los Angeles CA
- Stem cell regeneration, Houston TX, knee cartilage repair and regrowth.
Have you ever notice when you start inquiring about a topic, you begin with very broad search terms. And as you more serious and closer to making a final purchase decision, the words you use become more and more specific? These are called “keywords phrases.” These are buyers terminology.
Part 3: Ad Structure For Lower Cost and High ROI
The way we structure online ads, we want our ad copy to match the exact keywords phrases your potential client will type into the search bar. The more relevant and perfect your ad and landing pages match, the more we meet Google’s requirements.
Let's consider Google’s stake in the game. They have two main goals.
Their primary goal is to be the number one source of relative information for its users.
Google’s number two goal is to generate revenue from advertisers.
By the way, Google is doing an outstanding job of meeting both of their goals, as they are the number one search engine in the entire world, with over 92% of the market share globally and generating billions in revenue!
Google has strict guidelines for advertisers to create winning ads. Google Introduces changes to its algorithms almost daily. Some of the tweaks Google makes are minor; whereas others are far more serious and shake up the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page’s).
If you know when the updates happen and how Google expects you to play along, you’re golden! Because Google rewards those who provide quality to their users, your potential clients.
Google gives you the best position on the page while paying a lower rate than anyone else, plus you see immediate results!
What happens when business owners marketers and advertisers don’t know the fine details of structuring ads properly?
They receive a low-quality score. A lousy ad position in the SERPs (Search Engine results page’s), and in some cases, their ads are not seen at all.
They pay more for a lower position, including every ad above them. Hence the reason many people say, "Google Ads don’t work for my business!"
When you play by Google’s rules and go the extra mile’ it’s payday!
The Most Common and Critical Error the majority of advertisers are not getting right; they group their keywords into the same ad!
Whether they create one ad or ten ads, they group their keywords into the ads, which leads to:
- Less relevant clicks
- Lower click-through rate
- Lower quality score
- Higher CPC
- Lower conversions
When you start playing by Googles, rules, and going the extra mile, that’s when the magic happens; you start receiving the benefits of driving clicks at the lowest price possible. That is how you save your ad budget while increasing your revenue.
If you haven't already noticed, we use many different strategies than most marketers beyond the larger items mentioned already. Some of the smaller yet powerful things we do that also have a big impact on revenue:
- We omit search terms that elicit researchers & tire kickers.
- We only use keyword phrases that attract buyers.
- We create extensive lists of negative keywords
These three actions alone save you from wasting and spending on irrelevant clicks when they are applied correctly! These and many other actions are why people are blowing their ad budget.
Part 4: Lower Your Ad Cost
Here's a brief overview of some factors Google uses to determine your quality score.
This information is direct from Google's chief economist:
“60% of your quality score is determined by your click-through rate.”
Your ads must be relevant, and a high-quality landing page determines your rating for a quality score?
- Vertical CQ tags
- Ad bid amount
- Historical performance (have people liked your ads in the past)
- Click-through rate
- Overall account quality
- Ad copy relevancy
- Keyword relevancy
- Quality & relevancy of your landing pages. (they must match each ad).
There are many other factors and details, no one outside of Google knows the exact weight of each factor that makeup the "quality score algorithm" other than we know, the click-through rate carries the most weight.
Only 1% of advertisers use our methods of ad strategy.
Google rewards us with:
- High-quality score
- High click-through rates
- High conversions
- Low ad costs
- Higher ROI
Now- rewarding advertisers for following their policy is not one of Google's goals; it's simply a thank you for doing a great job and making them look good!
With that said, one may ask, will Google help us with our ads?
The short answer is no. Teaching us to make more money using Google ads is not one of their goals.
Keep in mind Google makes more from advertisers that aren't getting it right!
Google makes this information easily accessible; people don't take the time to learn the fine details.
Google rewards those that have done their due diligence.
Roughly 80% of marketers understand more than most and only 1% know the finer details.
Our ads are more complex therefore we have designed our proprietary ad software to assist us in creating perfect ads.
We can get them directly in front of the right people every time.
By now, you should have a much clearer understanding of each topic covered:
- Why SEO should not be your only strategy nor your first (unless you have enough budget for both) if yes, then, by all means, go for it!
- How to stop wasting your budget with ineffective methods with low or no ROI
- Even if you're running Google Ads there's a good chance you can get much better results
- How to generate highly relevant ads and pay less than your competitors
- How to ensure getting the highest quality leads by targeting buyers not researchers or people who waste your time
- Making More Relevant Ads with the Right Amount of Keywords
- Using Negative Keywords
- Having a High-Quality Landing Page (another key factor)
I've spent the last decade learning and teaching digital marketing to professional advertisers and helping all types and sizes of businesses with their digital marketing and sales all across the US; you may recognize them.
Unlike other marketing firms, we focus on data-driven multi-channel ads that convert nicely.
We do not work with just anyone.
If you are a serious business owner with an investment mentality, committed to growth with all, most likely be a great fit!
We work with one business within each market based on territory; otherwise we would be competing against ourselves, and for that reason we are more selective who we choose to do business.
Expanding revenue is our specialty!
I hope that clarified a few things for you.
I try to keep the terminology simple and easy to follow if it wasn't I apologize. After hearing things explained a few times it all starts making more sense.
Also, if you have any questions, please ask. We all started where you may be; I didn't know any of this in 2008!
Digital marketing will fast track your business success when we set the right things in place.
I love when my clients start understanding more and more; they get just as excited as I do watching their business change and grow; things they use to dread are now fun and exciting!
Please let me know if I can help in any way.
Thanks for sharing. I read many of your blog posts, they are very good and I learn each time I come here.